BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Has CNN become Fox News?

Just when you thought it was over it starts again, and many feel that CNN just pooped the bed. But let’s be more civil and analytical, if such is possible in today’s world.

I understand television programming and its various justifications for reasons of ratings and revenue, but CNN broke some rules last night when they put the orange devil on the air for nearly ninety minutes in prime time. According to the American Press Institute, journalism’s first obligation is telling the truth. Good decision making depends on people having reliable, accurate facts placed in meaningful contexts.

The second rule in TV news is never let the interviewee play you. Mike Wallace and Walter Cronkite turned in their graves last night. Why did CNN allow the former President to lie about the 2020 election? Why didn’t they confront him live, in real time, and tell him to his face that he’s still lying and ask him why he needs to constantly do so? Why not make it personal? Trump certainly does.

Any interviewer would have their hands full with Donald Trump, but a noble journalist must elicit truth. Kaitlan Collins asked Donald Trump some great questions, but she didn’t get him to admit anything. She was a facilitator for his lies. No matter how many panels CNN puts on for the rest of the week whining about Trump, some people will continue to believe his mendacities. It’s impossible for a journalist to create a clear vision when their primary source is a pathological liar, so why did CNN put him on?

This “town hall“ did not provide any insight into a lying candidate. It was just another network elevating Trump, giving him more oxygen and free airtime for his continuous deceit. How is this good for America?

Trump is an idiot on foreign relations and the current cultural realities of an ever-growing browner and more diverse America. He stopped absorbing and thinking in 1956.

The Donald couldn’t call Putin a war criminal, but in the very next sentence he described the atrocities of the war in Ukraine, unable to connect the dots that it’s his buddy Vlad who is doing the killing. I would have asked him, right at that moment, “What makes you so afraid of Putin?” Instead, we got more of the same bullshit, deception and tap dancing so fundamental to Donald Trump.

Chris Wallace is on the CNN payroll, but I’m sure Trump would never have agreed to a sit down with him. Instead, the network brought out their morning show tryout who asked penetrating questions but didn’t adequately rebut the responses. The entire affair became lost in the dust of Trump’s repetitive, nonsensical crap. Had he been properly grilled, I’m sure Trump would have walked off the stage, which would have been far more illuminating.

And what was up with that audience? It’s clear they were not properly vetted or managed, which obliterated the newsworthiness of the whole event. Instead of having a hall full of dimwits laughing and clapping at a fat, orange monkey, why not have an audience of journalists with each getting to pose one short, pointed question?

If TV news is to survive, it must have a certain gravity and gravitas based on truth. The CNN debacle showcased our drunken uncle babbling away about matters well beyond his comprehension. He couldn’t even pull off looking prepared, statesmanlike or normal. He just blathered put-downs and platitudes with the overarching theme of how screwed up America is. Why would we give this blowhard four more years to do what he couldn’t do in the four years he was president?

I’m going to briefly step aside here to inject a Tweet of someone who says it better, the former President’s niece, Mary L. Trump, “I’m furious…. CNN is anti-American. In less than an hour, they allowed an authoritarian wannabe to lie constantly while an audience full of his followers applauded. This was not a town hall; it was a rally. Donald bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade. He claimed—unchallenged—that Democrats allow babies to be murdered after they’re born. He bragged about his intention to pardon convicted insurrectionists. He advocated for the United States to default on its debt which would destroy the world economy. And he showed, once again, why a jury of his peers found him liable for sexual assault and defamation. But Donald Trump cannot destroy our country by himself. That requires allies. He already has the Republican party in his pocket. And now, he has CNN on his side. Tonight’s CNN fiasco was a tragedy for American democracy.”

Mary Trump clearly is just as appalled as I and many others are. CNN will have to work awfully hard to restore its credibility with me but, then again, like many my age I am starting to think that it’s all just bullshit. We can’t trust Congress. We can’t trust the Supreme Court and we certainly cannot trust CNN, or Fox, or MSNBC, or any news outlet that hides behind the bright lights of showbiz while leaving honest reporting and penetrating journalism splat on the sidewalk.

Think about all the major news stories that have broken in the last ten years and realize they resulted from the arduous work of journalists at the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Pro-Publica and other outlets. The talking heads on TV just read the words. They spend more time on their hair and makeup than pounding out the truth on a keyboard.

It’s embarrassing. Recently I heard one of the talking heads actually say, “Well, I haven’t read the whole document yet, but this could be either real good, or real bad for Donald Trump.” WTF!

Sorry, but if you attempt to be “fair and balanced” with Donald John Trump, you will merely make him President again and that would be the end of journalism and, oh yeah, DEMOCRACY!

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An Open Letter To Chief Justice Roberts

If you agree, write a letter:

Supreme Court, United States
1 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20543

Telephone: 202-479-3000

Dear Chief Justice:

I have to believe you are aware of what has happened in Tennessee. The sad part of that tragedy is it’s the result of those in an ivory tower who demand respect by wearing black robes, making them appear as if they are pious preachers, but alas, they are only humans who make grave mistakes in logic and judgement. Just today, I read that Justice Thomas admitted to taking $400,000 in “gifts” that he didn’t declare. How can the America public possibly believe that one of the country’s most important institutions is not for sale?

We’re told that laws are based on facts and traditions to attain and maintain justice for all, but now we have racism out of the closet and in the streets and legislatures. You cannot rewrite every state law involving gerrymandering and voting schemes to give one party more power and advantage. And your observation that we’ve come along far enough to not need voter protections for people of color in this country is naïve and incorrect. Between declaring a corporation is a person and your decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that ended women’s rights to decide their own medical care, your legacy is in tatters.

You and the other justices have little respect for what came before, and it’s clear that Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett lied during their confirmation hearings about Roe vs. Wade. That should disturb you greatly. Your court’s removal of a law that was on the books for more than fifty years was a dismal miscalculation that has sullied the institution FOREVER.

Our Supreme Court has divided us more than we were before these decisions. Taking away rights from minorities, women and the disadvantaged is not what your legislative body is supposed to do. You might want to spend some time with African Americans who cannot find a job.

I hope you read this, but if not, it’s simply proof of how your isolation has warped your judgement to the detriment of this great land. Chief Justice Roberts, corporations are not people, the Second Amendment doesn’t give anyone the right to kill school children, and it’s well past time the Supreme Court starts seeing the world through the eyes of common men and women.

How about the courtesy of a response to this taxpayer?

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WRONG WORDS, WRONG TIME

The price we pay for freedom

You know, people say stupid things. It happens frequently. Many folks on social media are ready to attack those who tweet, text or talk Second Amendment smack after a mass shooting, and so today’s coverage begins.

Late last year, Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles sent out a holiday card with his entire family holding guns. The caption read, “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” When asked about that photo in light of three kids and three adults being gunned down in a school in his city, he refused to apologize for his tasteless holiday P.R. Why? Perhaps he fears an expression of sorrow and grief would expose him to be less than the manly man he conjures for his brand and image.

Oh, Ogles did say he was, “devastated by the tragedy,” but like 99% of the Republicans in office, he will do absolutely nothing to protect the rights of “life, liberty and happiness” of the very people he represents, but he’s only one of many misguided guys who believe a gun is part of the “American dream.”

Another trope that rolls out of the mouths of the protectors of the amendment they like is a notion that mass shootings demonstrate that “freedom is not free,” and when people die at the hands of a lunatic it’s simply “the cost of freedom.” I find myself screaming that sounds exactly like a notorious domestic terrorist, Timothy McVie, who was put to death by the state.

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVie planted a bomb at the Oklahoma City Federal Building and killed more than 168 people, including nineteen children. When asked about the kids lost in his retribution for the Waco siege two years before, McVie uttered the immortal line, “They were just collateral damage.” Now, we have far-right members of Congress blaming the Nashville shooting on transexual procedures and illicit drugs, ignoring the real problem. The alleged shooter was being treated for a mental disorder.

There was no law in Oklahoma that prevented anyone from buying enormous amounts of the fertilizer McVie needed for his bomb, and obviously there are no red flag laws in Tennessee that would have prevented the shooter from legally buying seven guns. Audrey Hale’s parents didn’t think she should own guns, but she was a 28-year-old adult who could own as many guns as she wanted.

Tim Burchett, another braindead Congressman from Tennessee, declared, “We’re not gonna fix school shootings.” He even went so far to say that he doesn’t think the government has a role to play in stopping mass shootings. This guy, along with Andy Ogles, should be thrown out of Congress. If they cannot even believe a solution is feasible then they are part of THE PROBLEM.

Intellectually, I don’t care if you own one or four hundred guns, but if the purpose of your weaponry is casting fear over the neighborhood, you are misguided. If your reason for ownership is sport and hunting, I must ask what happened to using a rifle to bring down a deer or bird? Why would you destroy the very meat that is the object of your quest? Most police departments don’t have the firepower of their local gun clubs but, when protecting blue lives, pro-gun fans never seem to remember that cops are often outgunned by those with the automatic weaponry that Democrats want to ban.

Maybe I am naïve about the protection aspect of having weapons in the home. I get that you want to protect your family, but protect them from what? If an average gun lunatic wanted to off your whole family, all they would need is a loaded AR-15 and you would be helpless with your little 9mm handgun. It’s just a teddy bear for a nervous person, bringing comfort but no real protection.

Another aspect of our ongoing struggle with the plague of lunatic shooters is this concept of congratulating the police on how fast they responded. That’s all well and good, but in the end it’s not the quick response to the 911 call but the lack of concern about mental health challenges, red flags laws and dismal gun ownership record keeping. We truly have no idea about who owns guns and how many. Maybe we just don’t care.

A workable system would be national gun registration and a database entry required for weapon merchants and accessible by law enforcement. We need to keep an eye on those who buy “too many” guns or “too much” ammunition and messages posted on social media presenting clues to a crazy person’s intent. Yell to the ACLU all you like, but the print clearly states, “a well-regulated militia.”

Let me get real here. When dishonest politicians, TV talking heads and far-right scum on the internet claim the ravaged, dead bodies of nine-year-old children is just “collateral damage” or the “price of freedom,” I want to screech, “If you cannot do something to protect our children and make America better then SHUT UP!”

I don’t care if you are a Republican or Democrat, if you don’t do something about this crisis you will go to hell. According to Axios, “At least 57 people have died in 38 mass shootings in the US this month alone, with another 133 injured.” With seven hundred people taken from the earth each year by senseless mass shootings, we must address it. We first must admit it happened, then agree it’s a scourge and decide what we will do to prevent it. If not, we are not much more advanced than Neanderthals, who didn’t have guns.

Security at every door, metal detectors, teachers with guns, students with guns, more resource officers, more weapons, more religious resistance to a Second Amendment update will only kill more. We are at the tipping point and maybe it’s too late. It’s certainly too late for the 57 people who were taken from us this month by firepower, but it’s not too late to take back some guns, limit who can own them and convince America that inaction by those in power is careless, reckless and intentional disregard. In a court of law that’s called “negligence.”

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WHY? WHY? WHY?

The death of diversity and equality

George Orwell finished authoring his classic novel 1984 in the year 1948. Orwell was a British writer who composed lucid prose with a tinge of social criticism, professing strong opposition to totalitarianism while supporting democratic socialism. In the grand scheme of things, he was the man with a bright lantern showing us the future. In his book Animal Farm, Orwell pointed out, “The animals conspire to take control of their farm from humans, establishing ‘Animalist’ commandments to prevent the reproduction of the oppressive behavior of humans.”

There you have a not-so-subtle slash at the dictators, demigods and douche bags with narcissistic personality disorders. They desire to control those they believe are “less superior,” viewing them as sinners, seditionists and suckers. If you just believe what they believe and give them the power to manipulate things their way, life will be much better… for them.

Florida is the frontline of the culture wars because there are no checks and balances on the power of one man, the governor. This will surely spread, and there are those who will conspire to take control of their farms, their schools and their cultures and create a great crevasse between those who agree and those who pray to the god of critical thinking and logic.

I had the pleasure of watching the Netflix movie The Wonder, a story about a small village in Ireland that bought into the myth of a young girl being the vehicle of a higher power because she didn’t have to eat. The city leaders, doctors and priests thought this was good for their community and could put the small town on the map. A nurse visiting from London observed the girl to determine the truth. With all the town folk captivated by the illusion, the nurse broke the news to the men who ran the small town that their little angel was only human and must eat to stay alive. The metaphor from this movie is clear; men, religion, power and misguided beliefs of the parents were more important than facts and safety. In this case, a young girl’s life was at stake.

I was struck by one person’s statement in the Florida school board wars, “The schoolboard doesn’t own the kids, the parents do.” Oh really, mothers and fathers “own” their kids? Well, morally, ethically and legally, parents don’t own their kids. Caretakers have a responsibility to keep those kids safe, I get that, but their power stops at the first step of the Constitution.

In the 1969 landmark case, Tinker v. Des Moines, on students’ rights to free speech in public schools, the Supreme Court ruled (7 to 2) that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” So, the idea that a schoolboard can stop any student from expressing themselves goes against the ruling and spirit of free speech. As a student I should be able to declare my personal gender, discuss matters of diversity and equality and doubt whatever so-called “fact” is thrown in their face regardless of whether I am gay, straight, or trans. It’s called education, not indoctrination.

When the far-right claims being around someone different from themselves will somehow force them to adopt that different person’s personal persuasion, they demonstrate a lack of understanding of the power of the human mind. People do only what they want, and even if they are told what they are doing may harm themselves or others, they often continue. Think about all the public service announcements stressing how smoking increases the chance for cancer, yet people keep smoking. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30.8 million Americans still smoke cigarettes while 480,000 folks die each year from ailments and diseases caused by cigarettes and smoking. Some of these smokers scream at school board meetings about how the teachers are grooming their kids, while their children are ingesting second hand smoke every day at home. Even worse, some kids will be inspired to adopt their parent’s harmful addiction.

Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Brenda Ziegler as the Chairperson of the Sarasota School Board to rid that body of anyone who disagreed with his draconian laws, policies and prejudices. DeSantis is clearly homophobic, and the equally tainted chairperson was quoted as saying, “homosexuality is evil.” Now on the board, she claims “…there was a toxic culture within the School Board.” Ziegler underscored the unwillingness of some members to respect those with opposing views, but when the chairperson allows a speaker to harass the one member of the board who is openly gay, her lack of regulating hate speech in the chamber is allowing that “toxic culture” to grow. BRENDA ZIEGLER is the problem.

On March 15^th of this year, I picked up my daily local paper and read the headline, “Bill prohibits diversity, equality and inclusion on campuses.” I wondered if the headline was an Onion comedy bit, asking myself, “Jeez, what country am I living in?” Shortly after that, one of the most liberal state funded universities fired all the people who worked in their diversity office. In the myopic view of Chief Justice Roberts, we don’t need a law to protect the voting rights of minorities and the disenfranchised, yet the white, mostly male rulers of the land have decided they will control a woman’s body and they will control the speech of students and teachers. Instead of promoting freedom they are prohibiting it.

Ron DeSantis is not the only problem in America. There are at least a dozen ideologs in state governors’ offices who are attempting to roll out restrictions for gays and trans people, while not so secretly censoring the rights of African Americans by banning books and thwarting discussions of slavery and the civil war. When they say they are protecting the feelings of the students, they are really saying, “we need to make sure white students are not burdened with the guilt that comes out of slavery.” REALLY?

This just in from the Washington Post, “Transgender Americans experience stigma and systemic inequality in many aspects of their lives, including education, work and health-care access, a wide-ranging Washington Post-KFF poll finds.” So, it’s only the “normal” kids who get rights. The animals on the farm want to dehumanize the herd.

Donald Trump may have given people the courage to be bigots and total assholes in public, but it’s time to stop the wannabes and dolts who think the Trump playbook is necessary for a more perfect union. They are wrong.

And now, the Governor and the cult in the Florida legislature want to make the “Don’t say Gay” law apply from kindergarten through senior year. If a teacher discusses gender or being gay with their students they can be criminally prosecuted. The fire has been started but the firemen and women are not answering the alarm bell. They are ignoring a danger which has a serious potential to melt our freedoms away. And I have to ask, “Why? Why? Why?”

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ON BEING ANTI-WOKE

Bogeymen in Blue Suits and Red Ties

Malevolent men and women have always used fear to control us. Without the anxiety they try to induce in us, they are only paper tigers. A bogeyman is one who is evil or unpleasant and makes others afraid. A paper tiger is one who is outwardly powerful and possibly dangerous, but inwardly weak and ineffectual. Now that we have the terms of this game, let’s try to figure out why these creatures have glommed onto the term “woke.”

The timeworn African American slang term “woke” once referred to someone who was alert to racial prejudice and discrimination, but just as people grow up and change, so do words, phrases and slogans. Today, there are those who characterize a woke person as “hip” or “open-minded.” Therefore, it follows that an anti-woke person is CLOSE MINDED. This background, however, doesn’t answer the question about why so many politicians and mouth-breathing zealots have decided to force this term into the malicious column. If I am aware of cultural discrimination, while being open-minded enough to see beauty in every culture and tribe, why am I the enemy?

A “woke monster” is born when she or he puts down others, then rallies people around their criticism and attack. With the power of social media, it takes mere minutes for a stupid policy, statement or action motivated by self-profit to be consumed and believed. Every time Donald Trump, Jr. opens his mouth, all the pundit putdowns, comedic ridicule and digital abuse will not make him smarter. He will always be enormously close-minded and far from hip.

But why do the bogeymen label those who disagree with them as “woke?” It’s an incorrect term for a putdown. A person who is “alert,” “awake” or “hip” is trendy, cool and up on the latest things. Such a being doesn’t warrant a repugnant response from an elected official. One who attacks another person or group using the term “woke” means they are discouraging critical thought on any level. And guess what; that is exactly what they want to do.

I remember Richard Nixon used to call protesters against the Vietnam war, “outside agitators.” This was always offensive to me, a protester, because I was just as much a citizen as anyone else. Regardless of what I chanted while marching, I was still an American. Positioning us as OUTSIDERS, who the White House claimed were bused in for protesting, was an US and THEM tactic. We were protesting a corrupt and unjust war, and gee, we eventually discovered that was a hundred percent true.

What gets my goat are these self-serving hypocrites who run around the country talking about how they support the First and Second Amendment with no true understanding of what those articles even mean. The governor of Florida constantly claims grievance from an invisible foe of “woke culture,” but introduces and promotes laws to restrict school books, courses and curricula that he personally disagrees with, even when educators tell him he’s wrong. Once anyone tells Ron DeSantis he is wrong, they are moved onto his Enemies List and classified as “radical.” I honestly believe not teaching students about the true history of America is unamerican.

There have been some interesting characters throughout US history. Remember Senator Joe McCarthy? He wanted to round up all the commies in the country and put them in jail. Then there was Governor George Wallace, who genuinely believed in segregation and used racist tropes to gain power in the south. Now we now have about twenty people in Congress who are using lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories to raise money, defraud their constituents and disrupt the normal business of Congress. They need you to believe in woke scapegoats to move their narrow, dogmatic vision of America. They work tirelessly behind the scenes to devalue the vote of minorities and disenfranchised citizens. Why?

The divide makes Rupert Murdoch and Fox News billions of dollars, because they feed back misconceptions and lies to their eagerly misled audience. What a country! They box up a term like Critical Race Theory (CRT), demonize it, slap it and push it as evil by saying they want to protect the feelings of white students. Oh really, isn’t that fake wokeness? CRT is fundamentally an advanced college concept proposing that systemic racism and the way our laws are written place people of color at a disadvantage.

Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis and Margorie Taylor Greene say they are aiming for clarity, but they’re just manipulators in search of attention and fame at any cost. If you took all the money out of Congress, all three would be working other jobs.

We liberal thinkers and writers are not the bad guys. Those are the men in blue suits with red ties who hate immigrants, colleges and criticism. They want to “take their country back.” But to where? 1950?

For every book that is banned, smart kids will be motivated to independently search the internet to get at truthful information. I once cracked, “I agree we shouldn’t teach CRT in public schools because most white kids are not smart enough to understand the concept.” But seriously, what is the big deal? Derrick Bell, whose views formed the foundation of CRT, wasn’t as angry as white politicians want you to believe.

When states ban teaching CRT in schools that receive taxpayer money, they are simply proving Mr. Bell was right. It’s white people making laws that disadvantage Black people. It’s socialized racism that gerrymanders the boundaries of what can be taught and closes the door on critical thinking. It’s a mystery why Ron DeSantis, who attended Yale and Harvard, believes he can erase history and whitewash the truth. His malevolent social engineering causes minority, gay and trans kids feel bad about themselves, and he must stop.

I am really not sure what “woke” means, but if it means I see right through these spineless bigots and racists, then I guess I am woke. Maybe it’s time for us all to woke up.

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CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM

The Death of Separation of Church & State

Let’s focus on facts. After retirement I moved to Florida for the weather, not for the politics and viewpoints of many of my neighbors. I like living eight miles from the Gulf of Mexico, but normal conversations in this state can be frustratingly divided and unproductive. Here’s where I’ll bring in Thomas Jefferson.

I have always believed that Jefferson was a closet atheist, careful never to reveal his hand. If you follow his discussions, writings and letters, you will see that he was at best a skeptic, but also a highly intelligent farmer, inventor and writer. He was not good with money, so it’s safe to assume he was never a slave to math. Sir Thomas also had a strong memory of what happened in Europe when religious zealots got ahold of power and governments.

Germans, who were forced to decide between baptizing their babies or living free within their creeds and beliefs, left for America. What remains are the Amish and Mennonites of our communities. In Great Britain, all-powerful kings and queens were given command over the Church of England, and Catholics were harassed and persecuted. Millions of Brits moved to North America, drawn by the promise of our First Amendment.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The down and dirty interpretation is the government cannot prohibit the “establishment” of any religion. This was severely tested when the Internal Revenue Service fought the Church of Scientology’s tax-free status. After decades of legal battles, the US government gave up and granted them a charter. So, if a bunch of people get together and say they are a church, there is nothing Congress can do to stop them. The state cannot prohibit people practicing their beliefs, but nowhere is it decreed that the government has to fund or tolerate illegal activities within the confines of a religion.

In its early days, the Church of the Latter Day Saints codified the practice of polygamy, which is now outlawed in the Church. None of its faithful can practice plural marriage and remain a member. It was indeed a miracle when Gabriel appeared and ordered the head of the church to end the policy of men having multiple wives.

The reason Jefferson promoted the separation of church and state was simple and brilliant. To manage a population of vastly divergent views, beliefs and cultures, it was important for the government to operate above the mandates and myths of many groups. A nudist colony was certainly allowed to exist, so long as it didn’t hurt anyone who had no desire to be part of the cult.

If I don’t like something in America, I can protest with other likeminded souls. We are protected by the First Amendment as well: “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Although peaceful protest can escalate into property damage, disruptive melees and sometimes bodily harm, we still have the right to protest and petition for what we believe is right. For example, I don’t want my tax dollars to be handed over to dogmatic and religious institutions that suspend the Bible over my head.

Here in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis cares only about the power he derives from his “base,” whatever that is. He takes no advice from liberals, libertarians or librarians. If banning a book will get him a vote, he’ll do it. If he can bend a law or voting district to get reelected, he’ll do it. He never thinks about the millions of people who don’t agree with him, so there was no surprise when he took over the board of the New College of Florida, the state’s public liberal arts college. He’s now moving it toward becoming an academically rigorous but religious institution. This was part of his quest to prove to the far-RIGHT he is one of them. You can see the story here.

I believe that a constitutional scholar could argue that the actions of DeSantis are in violation of the US Constitution. By turning over the management of this state-funded higher education institution to religious zealots from Hillsdale College in Michigan, state taxpayer dollars will be used to convert the liberal arts school to a religious institution. In the end, the New College of Florida will be destroyed and get absorbed into the state’s educational myopic vision of one man. If they disagree with you, eliminate them.

The deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Pastafarianism

Everyone and anyone should be free to believe what they want and worship any God or bowl of pasta they want, but please don’t justify taking my money to build what you envision as a Judeo-Christian notion and nation. We are best when we allow people to be free, productive and focused on important things.

What makes me most angry is those people who say their mission is a more moral and focused educational system, but they are taking it by force and misinformation. Below you’ll see a letter I wrote to Hillsdale College after receiving a letter asking for contributions. In my estimation, they are nothing less than outside agitators and 21^st Century carpetbaggers wanting to get rich on large lies and heresy. They want you to believe what they believe and they will do anything they can to rope you in you. Be careful.

LETTER TO HILLSDALE COLLEGE

First, thank you for the copy of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States of America. I give them out to friends and neighbors who don’t quite understand what was declared and enshrined there.

Next, I would be remiss if I didn’t speak up and express my feelings and thoughts about your school and solicitation at this time.

Your opening pitch is false. You have no idea what the majority of democratically inspired citizens believe about America and the educational system.

Fact #1: Critical Race Theory, as developed and described by Derrick Bell and then studied by many experts over the years, has never been taught in public schools in America. Institutions, organizations and politicians, like yourself, are responsible for perpetuating this myth. If only you would take the time to read, study and understand what Mr. Bell was saying, you might see that passing laws and policies against “critical race studies” proves Bell was right. White lawmakers have consciously, or subconsciously, moved forward to construct laws that thwart the rights of minorities. What would Jesus say?

Fact #2: The US Constitution, as originally written, codified slavery and kept women out of the political process by prohibiting them from voting. We should teach this in our schools and, as your pitch indicates, you want to bring the document and its power into the classroom. Remember, only white men who were landowners could vote in this country and slavery was lawful for more than a century. As someone whose kin came to the Americas in the late 1600s, I am not proud of them owning slaves and fully recognize that FREE LABOR made this country great.

Fact #3: Religion and religious institutions like yours have been hijacked by FAR-RIGHT zealots and political operatives who want you to help them raise money and corral voters. You are corrupting the mission of Jesus and John the Baptist by pitting humans against other humans. You are the dividing force making it harder to discuss fundamental issues in America. You have cast a net over education, religion, poverty, gay rights, marriage rights, and even science itself. The separation between church and state was one of the reasons millions of people came to this land in the first place. It’s time for you to release the non-religious parts of your quest for power back into the pond of diversity that is the United States.

Your request for money is based on the fact that Hillsdale receives no federal educational funds. This is true because your institution has been accused of discrimination. Your marketing blatantly claims a desire to end diversity. Really? Again, what would Jesus say?

Please remove my name from your database and please stop bothering Floridians. A majority of the people here in Sarasota who really care about education are frustrated and infuriated by the hostile takeover of the New College of Florida. Your goal to convert the school to a dogmatic front for your political aspirations is a sin.

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FEAR OF FLYING

How to deal with dissent in the age of disinformation

Despite a fear of coming off as contrary or annoying, I must say that my default position is skepticism. You see, I’m inclined to question, and sometimes strongly doubt, accepted opinions.

Most of my friends were quite puzzled when I developed a fear of flying in the mid-1970s. My illogical dread began when I became obsessed with media coverage of several major air crashes at that time.

One of my friends, a true avionics enthusiast, took me by the hand and began a deprogramming process. We would meet for breakfast then go to the local airport observation deck to watch airplanes taking off and landing. Richard would point and mockingly say, “There, see that one? Didn’t crash!” He would do this routinely while interjecting his vast knowledge of aviation and how jet airplanes actually worked. The day finally came when he pointed out yet another plane that didn’t nosedive into the earth, and we both broke out in laughter.

I never forgot how much my friend helped me as this recovered-fear-of-flying human moved through life. Over the course of my more than fifty-year career, I flew millions of miles and was enrolled in numerous frequent flyer programs. My journey implanted a couple of points in my brain. One, never use a single incident or an anecdote to form an indelible conclusion, and two, without knowledge, facts and comprehension, human intellectual growth becomes stunted.

A racist who doesn’t know what racism means will never be able to cure their malady if and until they come to an understanding of what racism actually is. I remember learning the origin of the term “mulato” was a reference to a mule, the offspring of a horse and donkey. I then immediately deleted the word from my vocabulary, feeling embarrassed by my lack of realization.

Being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder in the mid-1990s, I was appalled when my personal physician told me, “You’re much too successful to have ADD.” He was wrong, and his lack of skill in identifying this simple ailment was astounding. I internally diagnosed my condition because all the data points lined up and confirmed the truth. With treatment, I have become more linear, more productive and decidedly happier.

Occasionally, I have faced someone who said ADD was a “made up thing” or an “excuse” for not working hard. I bristled, but with a calm voice and gentle smile began putting them to the test by asking if they knew the name of that spaced out sensation one encounters after a long airplane flight, “You know, that strange feeling when finding yourself in the grocery store but unable to remember why you are there?” They would chuckle and explain, “Oh, sure, that’s jet lag.”

I would thank them, then continue, “What about that peculiar feeling or having “been there before,” and not just the place but the circumstances of the situation?” Their answer came quickly, “Well, that’s déjà vu. Everyone experiences that.” And then I would say, “But it’s just a made-up thing, right?”

Once I nudged them into a defensive posture, I explained that ADD is a medical condition, primarily caused by a lack of sufficient dopamine in the frontal lobes. To be clear, jetlag and déjà vu have nothing to do with ADD, but prodding my listener to connect the dots of brain activity helped them understand their pronouncements were less than scientific or logical. Most experts believe the feeling you’ve been here before happens when there’s a bit of a miscommunication between two parts of the brain and that jetlag is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder caused by pushing the internal clock off schedule. Just observe what happens with people during a one-hour time change in spring and fall.

There’s a divide in our country based on a notion that no fact is secure. Sure, things change over time, but an openness that more data might require reversing or modifying one’s behavior is needed lest we sentence ourselves to a life of misery. I overheard a restaurant conversation where a man stated his reaction to a Covid-19 booster shot made him feel badly for a day. He said, “I will never get another shot. I don’t trust anything the CDC says.” Okay, that was one person, but I suspect he will vote for the political candidate who holds that same opinion, lacking any comprehension he would be more protected with the vaccine. If his doctor told him he has stage two cancer, would he walk out saying, “I don’t believe you,” and go home to await the third and fourth stages?

Science is not a one-night stand but rather a meaningful and ongoing relationship based on trust and truth. The more a loudmouth blowhard seasons an event with misconceptions, misinformation or disinformation, truth and trust become the victims. If a respected friend tells you that the CIA participated in the JFK assassination, it’s important that you examine and research the notion. When a person completely falls for a half-baked theory spouted by a TV talking head without any research, vetting or fact-checking, they are letting someone else program their brain. Is that a real thing? Surely.

One of the best pieces on the subject appeared in an article: The Social Dynamics of Conspiracy Rumors: From Satanic Panic to QAnon in Skeptical Inquirer magazine. The gist of that piece was use of the word “theory” after the word “conspiracy” should be eradicated forever. The word “theory” is simply wrong in that context. It’s not a theory, it’s a damn rumor. The term conspiracy rumor imparts less gravitas and more puffery.

By its very nature, a pre-conceived notion is an opinion formed without adequate evidence. We have all heard and used the phrase, “Well, that’s your opinion.” If using it ends a discussion and allows you to keep a friend, good for you, but if pushback makes the discussion escalate to an eruption, then the outcome was certainly not positive. It would be even worse to slam the door with, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” In July of 2021, when Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke those words to Senator Rand Paul, nothing was accomplished. Rand continued with his vitriolic, preconceived notions and millions of people refused the vaccine. Some of them died.

With mounting distrust of science, political manipulation of our educational systems and proclamations about everything being broken administered to millions by morally empty politicians, what can a reasoned thinker do to make the world better? You can either teach, talk to the crazy people, or leave the grid and turn off the TV.

I remember one of my kids being nervous about her first unaccompanied airplane flight. I told her, “You know, they don’t usually crash.” I’m sure my sarcasm didn’t help at all, and in hindsight I should have said, “They hardly ever crash.” Some suggest the odds of being in a plane crash are about one in eleven million. When the Powerball jackpot was over a billion dollars, it was said the odds of winning were one in 292.2 million. So, life imposes gambles, both bad and good.

Some celebrities claimed to have done research and decided not to get the Covid-19 shot. When probed about their information, they cited a whacko television talk show host or a website featuring lunatics-against-science. When asked if the 2020 election was rigged and the results invalid, a significant percentage of Americas said that is true, even though there are tons of data and documents to dispute that conspiracy rumor. How can we attain truth and trust again?

Most who fear flying will not make the effort to visit the airport for days on end to understand the vast number of verifiable data points proving planes rarely crash. Those who believe in the so-called deep state are ignoring that it is only real to the extent they embrace it. Once the poison of fixed position thinking takes ahold, the only path toward true liberation is the vaccine of truth. And you will probably need boosters along the way.

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NORMAL WINS

Guest Post from Jon Sinton:

The “Red Wave” turned out to be a puddle as normal overcame wretched, and Americans voted against the politics of grievance, lies, and conspiracy theories.

With some votes still to be counted, we know at least three things:

1. The Senate remains in Democratic hands while the House is still too close to call [since publication, the Republicans won the House]

2. The “Red Wave” that was supposed to sweep election deniers and fascist-adjacent anti-majority candidates into office were themselves swept into history’s dustbin;

3. “Predictive” polling is wrong again.

Exit polls, which are definitively the only polls that matter, showed that while 20% of midterm voters supported ridiculous and repeatedly disproven election-denying lies and conspiracy theories, 80% of Americans aren’t conspiracy theorists, voted for normal candidates, are normal themselves, and demand normalcy from those we entrust to govern us.

Polls preceding the election said the economy was all that mattered; exit polls said different. Abortion and democracy, which seemed like such moving issues in the summer, had supposedly flamed out and taken a back seat to inflation. But the polls tuned out not to be predictive. As Karl Rove said on Fox News on Election Night, “Polling is broken. Let’s not kid ourselves. We had a golden era of polling when we all had landlines and we answered them. Now, anybody here got a landline?”

Predictive Polling is a gigantic waste of time and money. I spent a long time in the consumer research business performing studies for radio and television. It started out easy: you call people at random, seeking the right age/gender/socioeconomic combination. You pay them a small sum to participate in a “qualitative” focus group. (Qualitative research is where the opinions of a few respondents are extrapolated to reflect the opinions of society at large. To backstop focus groups, you also mount large, statistically valid, “quantitative” studies.)

By the early Nineties, as wireless phones became ubiquitous, finding qualified respondents for both types of research got harder. We upped the incentives, and that worked for a few years. But once the smartphone came along, people cut their landline service and became really hard to find. The real killer, though, was the fact we were running into a ton of “qualified refusals”—people who were the right demographic mix but hung up as soon as they knew they were being polled. As David Letterman used to joke, “If you’ve ever been poled, you know how painful that can be.”

Dwight Douglas, a retired political advertising analyst for Media Monitors, told me: “Most pundits overstate polls and underestimate the electorate.” Douglas also has thoughts on why polling has gone off the rails, “Viciousness and vitriol have ruined political research. [Plus,] the theory that a person says one thing on the phone—sometimes just to get off the phone—might be opposite from their purchasing or voting decision, is a valid supposition…Post-election research carries much more value than pollster predictions. After an election…you can ask, who did you vote for and why.” That’s where sentiment toward policy direction is best found.

The smartphone phenomenon meant that pollsters totally missed the youngest voters, who showed up for democracy and choice. John Dick, the CEO of CivicScience, today’s Bible of consumer research, said: “Gen Z made its presence known in a big way. I’ve told you repeatedly they’re going to save the world and now they’re strapping on their capes. If you aren’t laser-focused on understanding what makes today’s teens and young adults tick, let me know so I can short your stock.”

People love to talk; they love to make predictions based on their own desires, a phenomenon known as “confirmation bias.” Subject matter expertise is of course optional. Cal and UCLA Professor Scott Galloway put it this way, “Our brains make it easy for our ambition to exceed our ability: The Dunning-Kruger effect [section4.lt.acemlna.com] describes a demonstrated cognitive weakness, that the less we know about something, the more we overestimate our knowledge. That’s why stupid people, and people who make great cars and then buy media companies, are so dangerous.” (Apparently no one can resist deriding Elon Musk, who, in fairness, does make a pretty easy target.)

Right or mostly wrong, they never stop. Today, Morning Consult is revealing a poll that says Donald Trump would garner less than half of Republican primary votes if a vote was held today. That’s down from 57% in August. I’m not sure it’s believable or even relevant.

Reality TV got the Former Guy elected. “Apprentice” fans thought him to be a master of the business universe. He isn’t, and never was. What he was, was a TV star in a scripted drama that paraded as an unscripted drama. That’s the dirty little secret of Reality TV.

Meanwhile, he fights on, blaming pollsters and everyone but himself for his dangerous and silly slate of now-repudiated candidates. He hasn’t quite realized his need to call the Leg Warehouse, since he doesn’t have one to stand on.

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THINGS I LEARNED FROM TWO HURRICANES

Preparation and Probabilities

I grew up in Pittsburgh, so I experienced hurricanes only on television. When my partner and I retired to Venice, Florida five years ago, we were greeted by Irma, our first hurricane. For that one, we put up the shutters and got out of town. Irma brought us only minor damage, the most serious being the live oak tree in the backyard being bent thirty degrees toward the house.

As for hurricane Ian, we decided to hunker down in our home and wait out the storm. We suffered from a ridiculous myth that Venice was built on a Native American burial ground and a direct storm hit couldn’t possibly happen. We were naïve, and wrong.

So, what did we learn from our encounter with the angry tempest, which the science guys call a CAT FOUR? Initially came all the traditional preparation, buying batteries of every denomination, filling the bathtubs with water, getting as much bottled drinking water as possible and putting up the shutters. That became my first lesson: know your limitations. As a senior, seventy-something guy I didn’t realize how out of shape I was and should have put on those knee braces before doing the work. By the time Ian hit, I could hardly move.

Our home was built under the strict codes of six to seven years ago, and it’s basically a concrete fortress. Ian brought us minimal damage, but that live oak repositioned by Irma is now on the ground, completely uprooted by Ian. I’m not sure living next to tall trees is advisable, but the state and county demand we have trees. Now that Ian knocked one down, we must replace it at our expense. Another lesson learned.

Taking pictures for a friend who owns a mobile home in a park, I saw Ian’s terrible wrath, and I’ve concluded it’s immoral for such construction to be allowed in Florida. The wind acted like a giant, demonic can opener, ripping apart the metal structures and destroying every carport. I’m surprised more folks weren’t killed. I understand mobile homes are a form of affordable housing, but Floridians shouldn’t live in them. Another lesson? If you live in an older or mobile home or in a low-lying area, don’t stay during a hurricane.

Now let’s talk about the power gird. Of course, we lost electricity. Ian made sure millions of other Floridians did also, but I’ll send props to those radio stations that managed to stay on the air. One nifty idea was several stations broadcasting the audio of their TV affiliates. Sadly, there are too many automated radio stations incapable of providing helpful storm reporting these days, so hats off to all the NPR stations with real news and weather experts, not disc jockeys faking it. Another lesson? Always have a radio on hand during a hurricane. I think you can still buy one.

Cell Phones are a problem during a disaster. Why? I heard a radio discussion where a caller said, “I thought with this G5 we would never lose service.” Well, until the government mandates phone company towers have generators or powerful solar batteries, your relatives up north watching the disaster coverage on TV will assume you are dead. We need a better system of communication, and it is well past time to demand the cash rich phone companies step up and reinforce their systems. They should have already done this.

We learned our book reading lights came in handy, strategically placed throughout the house and tapped to supply dim lighting in the rooms. That Sharper Image miner’s light I bought a few decades ago also came in handy.

This brings us to post storm. Oh, the wind was cool and pleasant, but don’t think opening the windows and getting a good night’s rest was possible. The drone of generators on our street was so loud it was like living in a beehive. And instead of burning gasoline for hours, isn’t it time for us all to have solar panels that feed a large Tesla-like battery that can power our homes for forty-eight to seventy-two hours? Climate change, and thus massive hurricanes are here to stay. Let’s start using the sun to get through them.

Then there’s the drainage systems. Our street water must travel a pipeline that eventually lands in a swale, which drains into the Myakka River. However, the system appears to be stuffed up and ineffective at moving water out of our subdivision. The county experts need to step up and tell us why. Maybe it’s time to invest in a more substantial infrastructure instead of flying immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Let’s reallocate that money to helping Florida.

Old buildings without substantial engineering improvements will never be able to deal with a CAT FOUR or FIVE. Even our Venice Theater, which was recently remodeled, had its roof blown off. I believe it’s time to have serious talks with our vendors, contractors and builders about the fortification of our cities and towns. In Venice’s historic district, several of those brand-new, decorative, black metal streetlamps crashed to the ground. What are their wind ratings? Also, why on earth was all the red paint blown off our stop signs? And those slick talkin’ builders who put up “walls” around your community, well, one of them on Venice’s east side was blown away by the hurricane and revealed the wall was made of Styrofoam! What the hell?

Irma may be forgotten, but Ian continues to affect us and that will probably continue for years. It’s time to figure all this out and reinforce against the next one! Future storms will be just as powerful because the earth is too hot. Stop ignoring the realities and find smarter people who can make better plans.

Now, here’s one final experience. All the comradery and community we experienced right after the storm, with folks pitching in to help one another, melted away in a few weeks. Just the other day, one of my neighbors rattled off how much he hates President Biden. I didn’t ask his opinion, his was an unsolicited remark. So, you see, people don’t change. They forget.

SOCIAL MEDIA MADNESS

What in the world have we created?

I love technology. It makes life easier and helps people accomplish more in less time. Social media, however, may not be good for everyone. The internet was designed to be a tamper-proof means of communication, capable of surviving wars and natural disasters, and it works. Even though Ian the hurricane killed the power for days in our Florida home, when the electricity powered back up all our emails, tweets, posts and pontifications were there waiting for us.

Once the internet was fully in place, the computer geeks morphed from specialized complexities tantamount to morse code and ham radio to a very usable platform for the everyday letters and graphics of technically unsophisticated users. E-mail was all we really needed, but the ability of one to broadcast their ideas to many soon followed. Once the world wide web was unveiled, we humans found thousands of ways to use it. One of the big drivers during the early days of the web was pornography. You see, there is always a light and dark side to every technology, think Manhattan Project. Yes, the invention of the atomic bomb ended a war but also unleashed the fear and threat of human annihilation.

In the beginning, internet “bulletin boards” connected users. Next, social media became a slicked up and simplified outgrowth of that technology, and once some people became infused with its ego, narcissism and psychological reinforcements, however, the tech became a drug. Sure, Google wasn’t social media, but it delivered a straightforward way to locate specifics in the vastness of internet information. Forty years ago, I said the internet provided two basic needs, finding things and selling things. Not much has changed.

One of the menacing aspects of platforms like Tik-Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the rest is the instant gratification of launching whatever one has to say onto the world wide web. For the most part, that thrill is free to anyone in any country that hasn’t blocked the internet from its people. I misused the privilege of being a Tweeter and am now banned for life from that one. I have been put in Facebook jail more than once, and still don’t fully understand why they even care about anything I said. I must have pissed off another user, thus leading to my cancellation. Do I care? Well, yes, because I have always used social media less for socializing and more for promoting my books, web sites and opinions.

Operatives within Russia’s government eventually plowed their way into the threads and thoughts of US voters. These bots and bad guys demonized Hillary Clinton and got Donald Trump elected. I don’t have the desire, time or energy to debate this truth with you. If you don’t believe what I’ve just said then you are ill-informed, and if you are continuing the worship of the fat, false, orange prophet, you are a certified asshole.

Over time, social media companies became less communication platforms and more “publishers.” Under pressure from overreaching government goons and their own users, they began to censor their users. Oh, certainly for good reasons.

The platforms analyzed the traffic and figured out which were foreign influencer bots and who were pure humans. Then they decided to point out what they believed to be misinformation and turned down the demonic disinformation campaigns. Sadly, they were too late most of the time. Even after the social media platforms claimed to have “fixed things,” we still had mass shooters live streaming their deadly deeds. The social media companies were simply too big and stuffed with too much data, rendering them incapable of thwarting this activity. Most of the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the mass shooter lunatics are taken down only after their crimes have been committed, which is certainly not pro-active.

Now, we have one of the richest guys in the world, with a hundred- million followers on Twitter deciding that “he and he alone” can fix what ails Twitter. To achieve this, he bought the company for $44 billion. Some experts say the day he took over Twitter Elon Musk lost $30 billion, yet Twitter is worth only $10 billion, and there aren’t enough people to fire or lay off to make a difference in Musk’s financial fiasco.

Lord Acton was the first person to say, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and Elon Musk, like many humans having too much success, money and power, now believes his shit doesn’t stink. Well, he’s not always right, and what took place three days after his purchase of Twitter proves it.

Musk re-Tweeted a right-wing newspaper that claimed Paul Pelosi wasn’t attacked by a right-wing radical but received his skull fracture from a gay lover he brought home from a bar. Musk has since deleted that tweet, but really, it proves that without a firm, final filter Elon Musk will become Twitter’s number one problem. Ironically, his action removed any aura of him being an “arbiter of truth,” and if he wants Twitter to be a public forum of free and truthful speech, he should be banned from the platform immediately.

Just because someone has a lot of money doesn’t keep them from drawing graffiti on a bathroom wall. Yes, of course, “For a good time, call Elon,” but don’t hold your breath. He won’t answer your letters, take your calls or respond to any “common man.” I know, I’ve written him. Crickets…

It may sound like sour grapes because I was banned, but I believe that within three years Twitter will be gone. When Musk opens up the platform to all those exiled souls who had been sent away, we will all blow our wads telling him he’s full of shit. How will he manage it when he’s the target? He will ban us again. And as the advertisers leave because Elon allowed Trump to return to Twitter to tell us how fucked up the 2020 election was and how great he is, who will finance that overhead? I surely won’t.

This headline arrived even before the body cooled, “Twitter is planning to start charging $20 per month for verification.” I have no idea what that means, but if Elon thinks I will spend more than $200 a year for him to feel comfortable that I am not a bot, well, he can go jump in a river. Elon Musk is nothing but a rich-Republican, Putin-apologist. He doesn’t care about free speech, democracy or anyone other than himself. It’s all madness, and when he wakes up from his high-power stupor and tries to find some sucker to buy a depleted, demonic, dead bird, I wish him luck. Perhaps he needs to take a shut the fuck up pill and find ways to make better cars and rockets.

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